As per the OHRC’s Policy on Discrimination and Language, although the Human Rights Code does not explicitly identify “language” as a prohibited ground of discrimination, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario may consider claims under a number of related grounds, such as ancestry, ethnic origin, place of origin and in some circumstances, race. The 2010 matter of Arnold v. Stream Global Services offers an explicit interpretation of this policy.

In Liu v Everlink Services Inc, the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal decided that, when a Chinese Canadian employee, Liu, was terminated from his employment, he was discriminated against on the ground of place of origin.